DACA outline draws both sides’ fire
Trump base, critics slam plan for wall funds, citizenship
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is testing the loyalty of his most ardent conservative supporters, proposing a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million young immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children, while demanding that Democrats support $25 billion for border security, including his proposed border wall, and strict new limits on legal immigration.
The 1.8 million figure would go well beyond the nearly 700,000 immigrants currently covered by the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, expanding the protections primarily to cover people who were eligible for DACA but did not apply.
The White House designed that element of the plan in hopes that it would provide a strong enticement for Democrats. But it quickly generated opposition from some Republican conservatives.
“Amnesty comes in many forms, but it seems they all eventually grow in size and scope. Any proposal that expands the amnesty-eligible population risks opening Pandora’s box,” said Michael Needham, the head of Heritage Action, a conservative group.
And even before details of the plan emerged, blowback was building inside parts of Trump’s base.
“Immigration Shock: Amnesty Don Suggests Citizenship for Illegal Aliens,” read a headline on Breitbart News, the conservative, nationalist website once run by Trump’s former strategist, Steve Bannon.
At the same time, advocates for immigrant rights warned Democrats against taking Trump’s bait and accepting restrictive changes to the immigration system in return for legalizing the socalled Dreamers, a group that polls show has broad support among Americans.
“This is the play being run from the White House,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of the immigrant advocacy group America’s Voice. “‘You guys are desperate for Dreamer relief. We want most of our agenda and a little bit of yours.’ ”
The White House proposal, overall, would reduce legal immigration by 50 percent by sharply reducing the scope of family members that new citizens and permanent legal residents could sponsor, Sharry said, adding that it would “destroy what has been the cornerstone of our immigration system.”
The ACLU labeled the White House plan a “hateful, xenophobic immigration proposal that would slash legal immigration to levels not seen since the racial quotas of the 1920s.”
Greisa Martinez Rosas of United We Dream, one of the leading DACA recipient groups, called it “a white supremacist ransom note.”
The heated warnings from left and right illustrated how the immigration issue can create tension within both parties.
A bipartisan group of Senate moderates hopes those tensions will lead both sides to accept a compromise, arguing that both Democrats and Republicans need to give ground. Yet the internal divisions, especially among Republicans, have repeatedly scuttled past legislative efforts on the issue.
The new proposal emerged as Trump met with global leaders in Davos, Switzerland, leaving aides back in Washington to catch up after he unexpectedly announced an emerging immigration plan to a group of reporters Wednesday evening.
The announcement came when Trump crashed a meeting that White House chief of staff John Kelly was about to have with reporters and staged an impromptu 15-minute news conference at which he said he had just written “something out” that included a path to citizenship for DACA recipients that would take 10 to 12 years.
On Thursday, Kelly visited Capitol Hill to describe the administration’s emerging proposal to lawmakers.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., offered a tepid response to the proposal.
“I am hopeful that as discussions continue in the Senate on the subject of immigration, members on both sides of the aisle will look to this framework for guidance as they work towards an agreement,” he said in a statement.
A bipartisan group of senators has been meeting daily in the office of Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, in the rush to develop legislation ahead of a self-imposed Feb. 8 deadline.
Collins told reporters that she had discussed the issue with Trump earlier in the week and urged him to protect DACA recipients.
Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican and an immigration hawk Trump has consulted during the negotiations, said on Twitter that a path to citizenship for DACA recipients “must be done responsibly, guaranteeing a secure & lawful border & ending chain migration, to mitigate the negative side effects of codifying DACA.”
And some remained opposed to any deal that would legalize the status of the Dreamers.
“It would be a serious mistake for Congress to pass legislation that provides amnesty or a path to citizenship for those here illegally,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told reporters.